Mou Ichido no Kikai
by stars.everlasting
Summary: With the Fourth Shinobi War raging on, Sakura fights for her best friend, Naruto Uzumaki. However, an unexpected encounter leaves her in her twelve-year old body again. "It looks like fate's given me one more chance to make things right." SasuSaku.


**Okay! I'm back again, this time with a time-travel fic! I like the idea, and I _know_ everyone's done it before, but I'd like to try the idea out first. I like time-travel fics. They're fun :D I also know I should be updating my anthologies...but I'm working on them, I swear! **

**So, tell me what you think about this fic. Constructive criticism please, and no flames! By the way, the title of this story means "One More Chance".  
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**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. if I did, we'd get more Kinkaku and Ginkaku action. Those two are _epic_.**

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><p><span>Mou Ichido no Kikai<span>

Sakura stared at the bodies that littered the field.

The Fourth Ninja War was tearing everyone apart; the dead were fighting against their own will. Sakura remembered how Zabuza begged Kakashi to free him, and how things played out just like before until the very end. She also remembered Ino's retention of how the legendary Kinkaku of Cloud somehow went into tailed beast mode, and how they fought Asuma (Sakura felt sorry for her friends, she couldn't imagine what they would have gone through). Even though the dead were brought back to "life" by the enemy, the fact that many shinobi she knew, many good shinobi, were nothing now, just bloody and dismembered corpses laying amongst the rubble the earth had been reduced to in front of her, saddened her immensely.

"_This_," she thought grimly, "_is what war really is."_

To Sakura, war had always seemed like a distant thing, something which, when she was younger, thought she would never experience. She had always imagined her future to be war-free, to have everyone she knew smiling and laughing without a care in the world, to be _stable_. She knew it was childish, that she was being naive, but Sakura couldn't help thinking that the Fourth Ninja War wasn't going to happen. Even if it _did_ happen, she imagined Konoha emerging victorious, and imagined Naruto and the rest of the Rookie 9 being declared as heroes.

Unfortunately, she was wrong. People she had known for years, shinobi she had grown up with, were killed in the war. Her future _wouldn't_ have everyone she knew smiling and laughing, it _wouldn't_ be stable: those who died would never come back.

War was simply mindless killing, she concluded, a useless way to get what you wanted, to solve the problem. Although you would have achieved your goal, countless lives were lost, families were left shattered, villages destroyed…and bloodstains were left on on your hands. **(1)**

Excruciating pain shot up her left shoulder, jolting Sakura out of her dark reverie.

Gripping her shoulder, she discovered that her arm had nearly been torn out of her socket. It was a gruesome sight, the bone and its marrow poking through her flesh, some tendons snapped into two, blood dripping slowly from the wound, rendering her left arm completely useless.

Sakura hurriedly debated on whether to heal her mangled limb or not. Her chakra levels were low, and she couldn't afford to be completely depleted of it when there was a war against an immortal Uchiha psychopath raging on. It would also take too long for her to build her chakra levels up again. But, the injury might affect her fighting, get infected, make her weaker…

She gritted her teeth. "_My wounds can wait: my top priority right now is to fight…for Naruto_."

Sakura then gave a battle cry surged forward into the fray.

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><p>"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?"<p>

"Calm down, bro, keep your head in the game, yo~" Killer Bee responded.

Naruto's face was pale, his eyes bulging out of his sockets and his mouth wide open. He looked…_deflated._

"THERE'S A FUCKIN' WAR GOING ON BECAUSE OF ME?"

"That's right, hang on tight~" **(2)**

Naruto then proceeded to tear his hair out. "THERE'S A WAR GOING ON!"

"You got it, the kid's got it~" Bee rapped. **(3)**

Naruto pointed to himself. "BECAUSE OF ME!"

This time, Bee just nodded. **(4)**

Naruto visibly quieted down. "Oh."

All was silent. A bird squawked indignantly in the distance.

"…"

"…"

Naruto straightened, calmly walked towards the wall, took a deep breath, and…

"…THEN WHY THE HELL AREN'T I OUT THERE?"

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><p>"Hehehehehe!" Naruto snickered. "No one will find me now! I can go and help everyone fight!"<p>

After his outburst, Naruto announced that he had to go to the bathroom. **(5)** Then, inside, he sneakily created a Kage Bunshin and sent it back in his place. With that, he managed to escape from Bee's training cell, concealing his chakra to effectively avoid the rest of the shinobi in the vicinity.

His joy was short lived, though. Once he got out, he discovered he was on a giant moving tortoise.

He stood on a ledge, arms crossed, surveying the island on the giant animal.

Naruto stared at the thin, white line that was land and the vast, cerulean ocean that spread before it.

Then, once more, "WHAT THE FUCK?"

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><p>Sakura panted heavily.<p>

This was something she hadn't expected: facing off against the Sand Elder Chiyo.

Sure, she had fought alongside her against Sasori, even becoming a temporary puppet to defeat the Akatsuki puppet master. She had some experience of what Chiyo could do. But, Sakura knew that there were probably other techniques Chiyo knew that she did not. She was at risk.

"You've gotten stronger, Sakura," the old woman rasped. "I'm glad…but I wish it didn't have to be this way."

Sakura understood what Chiyo was trying to tell her. The fact that she was already dead gave her somewhat of an upper hand. Sakura couldn't exactly kill her again, but Chiyo could most definitely kill her.

"Chiyo-sama, I'll try my best…" Sakura began, determination etching itself in her voice.

"…I'll try my best to free you."

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><p>"LAND! SWEET LAND!" Naruto cried, kissing the sand. He had cleverly used shadow clones to make stepping-stones of sorts: he got off the enormous animal using his clones. Then, he ran across the vast ocean to reach land, popping chakra pills along the way.<p>

An explosion shook the ground, and Naruto whipped his head up to find smoke rising from nearby.

"The war…that's going on because of me…." he murmured, and then took off towards the source of the explosion at high speed.

"_I will not_," he thought fiercely, "_let anyone sacrifice themselves for my sake_."

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><p>Staring at the container that had sealed Chiyo's body, Sakura took a few moments to rest.<p>

She glanced at her mangled limb. The bleeding had stopped, but the sight was as grisly as ever. Sakura discovered after trying to flex it that she couldn't move it at all. Letting out a sigh, she placed her hand over the wound as green chakra began flowing out of it. Closing the wound, joining the tendons together and setting the bone back in its rightful place was the only thing she was going to do. It would still hurt, but she decided that it would be much more useful if her arm could _move_.

As her arm healed, Sakura's thoughts wandered towards an unusual subject: Uchiha Itachi.

She had heard from Naruto and Kakashi what Madara had told them. Itachi, who turned out to be a good person right till the end, Itachi, who killed his family for the sake of his village, Itachi, who spared Sasuke because he loved him too much to kill him.

It was difficult to imagine the choice he was faced with: to kill either his own blood, or watch as Konoha fell to another war. Sakura herself would've chosen her village, yes, but she simply couldn't fathom the agony the Uchiha felt when he murdered his own mother and father.

Speaking of family, she remembered the estranged relationship she had with her mother. Reizo Haruno had walked out of the house one fine morning, when Sakura was eight, never to return. Already insecure with her husband's abrupt departure, Ume Haruno had slowly, and unknowingly, slipped into depression, taking out her negative emotions on her daughter in the end. Ume had kept her husband's permanent absence a secret from Sakura, lying to her by saying he was out on business, and had tried to raise Sakura to the best of her abilities. This meant providing their tiny family of two was her job, including bringing up her only child. **(6)**

Sakura grimaced as she remembered the day her mother broke.

_`FLASHBACK~_

_Twelve-year old Sakura dumped her bag on the small, wooden dining table. "Tadaima, Okaa-san," she called out, already making her way to the bathroom to freshen up. Before she could go inside, though, she heard her mother's voice behind her._

"_Okaa-san?" she asked, turning around._

_The sight she met with scared her. Ume had dark circles under her eyes, and her body was thin, the clothes almost hanging off of her. Face haggard, her eyes flashed as she snapped at her daughter. "Where have you been?"_

_Sakura frowned, confusion written across her face. "On a mission, Okaa-san. Didn't I tell you that I had one this morning?"_

"_A mission?" Ume hissed. "Are you still playing ninja? I thought you would stop! After what happened on that mission-or rather, death wish to the Land of Waves…"_

"_Okaa-san…" Sakura said, slipping around Ume to sit on the worn couch. "Being a shinobi isn't a game. I know what I've signed up for. Danger is a part of our lives. And nobody died on that mission to the Land of Waves, Okaa-san. We just got a few scrapes and bruises." Even then, Sakura omitted most of the events that took place, so her mother wouldn't worry. _

"_You have to stop! If you die, then-"_

"_Okaa-san," Sakura interrupted, rolling her eyes. "I'm not going to die. Honestly, why are you acting so weird? You were fine with me becoming a kunoichi before."_

_Ume, who was slowly turning red, finally erupted. "You wretched girl! Do you know how hard it has been for me to manage feeding and clothing our family? Every single bloody day of my life I've had to bend and toil away doing petty jobs to feed you and give you a good childhood! And now you're risking everything, throwing the life I've worked so hard to give you to go fight and steal and kill!"_

"_O-Okaa-san…" Sakura stammered, unsure of what to do._

"_Don't interrupt me, gaki! You're wasting my resources, going around wearing that useless headband! Soon, you'll leave me, won't you? You'll walk away with those ninjas to live the glorified life of a heroine and you'll leave me to rot, _just like your father_!"_

"_B-but, I thought that Otou-san…was away on business-"_

"_FOOL!" Ume screeched. "Your father left us! _Forever!_ He didn't want us anymore, so he got up and left!" With that, she collapsed on the floor, sobbing, her brown hair clustering around her face._

_Sakura was in a state of shock. All this time, the truth about Reizo had been hidden to her. All this time, her mother had lied about him, to her! Her own daughter… and all this time…_

…_she believed her beloved Otou-san would come back._

_~END FLASHBACK~_

After that, she took her mother's verbal blows with silence. She didn't cry, she didn't scream, she didn't argue. Only on the day she woke up on a cold, stone bench did she crumble. On that day, Ume's screams made it worse, as she raged on and on about her daughter's whereabouts the previous night. Sakura simply couldn't take it anymore, and she ran out into the streets, bumping into Kakashi and Naruto. When they asked her what was wrong, she simply began crying hysterically. Kakashi's visible eye narrowed as he took in the sight before him, and proceeded to go to the Haruno residence, leaving a bemused Naruto trying to comfort her.

After that, Ume was seen by the Hokage herself, and was diagnosed with depression, that had been mounting over the years until it was released. Further studies revealed that the lack of proper treatment had caused Ume to go insane. Sakura had then been removed from her custody, and upon questioning, stated that she would rather live by herself, instead of with a close friend like Ino or Shizune. She got an apartment across the street from the Yamanaka compound.

Tsunade became even more stressed, Sakura remembered, when she learned that Uchiha Sasuke left the village to join Orochimaru in Sound. She drank herself to sleep, waking up with the worst hangover the next morning.

After recovering from the shock of the events that took place, Sakura was informed that her mother was in the hospital, confirmed to the insanity ward, where she would remain for the rest of her life. Sakura had tried visiting Ume once, but her mother had refused to talk to her, and would stare out the window, muttering that her daughter was like her father after all: Sakura had abandoned her, just like Reizo.

Her grim musings were interrupted by a shout of, "Uzumaki's here!"

Snapping her head towards an unknown shinobi, she stopped healing her arm and marched towards him. Holding him up by the collar, she growled, "_Who_ did you say was here?"

"U-Uzumaki Naruto," the man fumbled, clearly scared out of his wits.

Sakura was once again interrupted when a yell of "Teme!" resounded throughout the battlefield.

Letting go of the shinobi, who quickly scampered away, Sakura let shock consume her body as she turned towards the direction of the voice.

Naruto was here…and by the sound of it, so was Sasuke.

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><p>Naruto shot through the trees, battle cries and explosions becoming louder as he sprinted closer to the battleground.<p>

As soon as he emerged from the forest, he tried spotting familiar faces: Sakura, Shikamaru, Neji, Hinata, heck, even Shino he wouldn't have minded, even though the Aburame and his insects creeped him out to several degrees. Unfortunately, all he saw was nameless shinobi fighting, some of them having strange black eyeballs. Some of them…looking dead.

Confused, he began sprinting into the warzone, dodging shinobi here and there, searching for someone he would at least recognize. He ignored the puzzled faces and the recognition that dawned on them immediately after, he ignored the shouts of "Uzumaki!" and "Naruto!" and even the occasional "Jinchuriiki!", and most of all, he ignored the yells of people telling him to "get out of here!".

But before he could find out exactly what was going on, Naruto spotted something that made him stop right in his tracks.

The scene in front of him seemed like an illusion, but that familiar chakra surrounding _that person_ assured him that this was definitely not a daydream. The familiar emotions started to rise from his stomach: anger, jealousy, despair, shock, courage, determination, and most of all, hope.

Standing a few feet away, absorbed in fighting some unknown shinobi, Mangyeko Sharingan spinning wildly, was none other than Uchiha Sasuke.

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><p>Sasuke calmly dodged a punch thrown by his opponent. "<em>Weak,<em>" he thought, distastefully. "_They're all so weak._"

Summoning a small Chidori in his left hand, he swiftly crashed it into the shinobi's chest, causing him to stagger backward and fall to the cold, solid ground.

He then took time to scan the battlefield. All he found was small flares of chakra every now and then, which, to be honest, bored him. Sasuke wanted a strong opponent, someone with enormous chakra reserves, like Naruto or Bee to fight him. With his martyred brother's eyes, he would crush Konoha, and Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi with it.

His search was interrupted by an unmistakable chakra, one which he would never forget.

The Uchiha smirked, his brother's eyes swerving to his left. Before he could turn, a shout of "Teme!" confirmed the chakra's owner's identity.

A cold, malicious smirk present on his face, Uchiha Sasuke came face to face with an emotional Uzumaki Naruto.

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><p>Naruto clenched his hands into fists. "Sasuke-teme…"<p>

"Naruto," Sasuke's voice cut through the air, still the smooth baritone Naruto remembered. "Have you come to show me you're stronger, come to _take me back_?" he asked, his tone mocking.

Naruto growled, "Teme, I've come to knock some sense through your goddamned thick skull…and no, I'm not going to _take_ you back…I'm going to _drag you sorry ass back to Konoha!_"

Sasuke's face was impassive. "You of all people should know that Konoha, that village that took away my family from me and fed me lies, was, is, and never will be my home."

Naruto felt his fingers dig into his palms, his knuckles white. "It will be…once I get you to see why!"

With that, he let out a frustrated yell and charged towards Sasuke.

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><p>Sakura ran.<p>

She ran so fast, it looked like her feet barely touched the ground, as she sped towards the place where _he_ was.

She would finally see him again.

Sakura already knew how far he had fallen. She knew that the boy she had fallen in love with during their genin days no longer existed. Instead, there was a man with the same face and the same voice and the same name who was a bloodthirsty, power-hungry avenger, who would kill both her and Naruto without a moment's hesitation. She hadn't given up on bringing Sasuke back to Konoha, but she knew that if she did, things would probably never be the same again.

Arriving closer and closer to the area, Sakura sensed two familiar chakras: one Naruto's and one Sasuke's. Pushing herself faster and faster. She soon burst into a large, empty stretch of land, seeing two clashing figures in the distance.

Sakura stared in horror as Naruto and Sasuke, both equally wounded, run towards each other, the Chidori and the Rasen-Shuriken blazing in their hands. "_They're going to kill each other_," was the only thing that passed through her mind. Without further thought, she rushed towards them. Sakura wasn't going to lose them. Not now, not ever.

She advanced towards them with astonishing speed, screaming, "_STOP!_"

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><p>The Rasen-Shuriken swirling in his right palm, Naruto shot towards Sasuke, fully intending to end the fight.<p>

Sasuke's Chidori was at full power, and he didn't bother to use Amaterasu on his former teammate. He wanted to defeat Naruto with his signature jutsu, not something that was originally used by his brother. As he sprinted towards Naruto, he didn't think about what would happen next.

What the descendants of the Senju clan and the Uchiha clan did not expect was a pink-haired blob running in between them just as their fists and justsus clashed.

In the explosion that followed, only one thought flitted through their brains as they were thrown back by the force of their collision, blinded by hot, white light.

"_Sakura."_

When the smoke cleared, the two of them found that Sakura was gone.

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><p>Sakura felt her body being pulled in all directions, her nerves screaming with pain. She had never felt this kind of pain before, and it was worse than any kind of pain she could ever imagine. Through the haze of extreme sensation, her mind tried to find out what was happening. Was she dead?<p>

She never got to know. Before she could find out, she lost consciousness.

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><p>When she came to, Sakura found herself staring at a familiar ceiling. She had seen it many times before, and wondered why she was back in her old room, in her old house, as she got up from her bed and looked around.<p>

Getting up, she walked towards her bathroom when she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror.

Green eyes, a small frame, and long, pink hair stared back at her.

Sakura froze with shock, a full five years of life crashing back into her, the war and Naruto and Sasuke and Madara flashing across her eyes.

Stumbling towards her bedside table, she grabbed it, with hands much smaller than they normally would be. After looking at the time and date, she slowly put it back, sinking to the floor.

As if unable to believe it, she put a hand to her hair. It was still the same way it looked in the mirror: long and silky.

Realization dawned on her as her emerald orbs widened. "Oh my god," she whispered. She was back in Konoha.

Sakura was twelve again.

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><p><strong>(1) I stole this from Macbeth. Hehe.<strong>

**(2) I'm trying to rap, I think. God, I suck at it. XD**

**(3) I'm failing at it. Epicly failing at it.**

**(4) This time, Bee just nodded because I ran out of rhymes. :P**

**(5) This was typed a week ago, and I just read the latest Naruto chapter yesterday, only to find that he DID ask to go to the bathroom, except, he was way more serious than in my fic. Oh, whatever, I'm psychic! XD~**

**(6) I totally made this up. Sakura's parents never did show up anywhere, not in the manga and not in the anime. I don't know why I did it, though. Maybe I wanted Sakura to feel some sort of angst? Maybe I don't want her to be the normal one on Team 7? I guess I wanted her to kind of have a history. She's still going to be the most normal of Team 7, though. On a lighter note, Ume means plum blossom. :D**

**So it's done! Tell me what you think, and Itachi and Gaara will appear shirtless on your screen and give you a virtual cookie. You know that button that says "review" is tempting. ;)**


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